Eric Plosky

Background

About Eric Plosky

tinyurl.com/ploskytranspoI lead MobilityData, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the data formats that power mobility systems. As I put it:"Better transportation through data."I developed and teach a Harvard course,"Transportation and Sustainability," which is part of the HES master's program in sustainability, and I otherwise serve as an instructor and thesis advisor. At MIT, I've co-run a half-day course called "How it Really Works: Planning in the Real World." The idea is to talk about what a planner's job actually entails, as a counterpoint to the theoretical and case-study material usually encountered in academia.I’m a transportation and planning expert both professionally and academically, as well as an experienced leader, teambuilder, and communicator. Although I have been a public-sector manager, I've always operated within a private-sector consulting business model, emphasizing entrepreneurship, innovation, and accountability.Previously, as the chief of transportation planning at the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (part of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of the Secretary), I built and led a team of 40 that worked closely with the Secretary of Transportation to advance some of DOT's top priorities, such as the DOT strategic plan, and Secretary Anthony R. Foxx's "Beyond Traffic." We also worked with FHWA, FTA, states, MPOs, federal lands agencies (such as the National Park Service), DOD, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and other sponsors on many different kinds of initiatives at the forefront of transportation planning: policy, program, and project analysis, development, and management; evaluation and oversight; research; public outreach and involvement; and transit service and infrastructure planning. I worked at NPS headquarters in Washington for four months in 2005.I also served as a disaster-recovery coordinator for U.S. DOT, working collaboratively with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies both to develop national policies and programs and to conduct location-specific recovery operations. I was stationed in Louisiana for five months following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, deployed to several subsequent disasters, and, at DOT's invitation, presented at the U.S./China Transportation Forum in Xi'an, Shaanxi.I have a background in writing and journalism; I’ve visited all 50 states. I run and swim and bike and boat. My dog, Data, keeps an eye on things!